120 



Canadian Forestry Journal 



tivation of the forest the greater is 

 the return from it after all the ex- 

 penses of management are paid. 

 Saxony, for example, obtains from 

 her forests an average return of 

 some $8.78 per acre, gross, but of 

 this amount an average of $3.46 

 (over three eighths of the total) is 

 spent on the administration of the 

 forest, leaving a net profit of $5.32. 



The calculation of growth just 

 quoted, moreover, is made on a very 

 low basis. Poplar, useful as it is 

 where no other timber is available, 

 is a wood of comparatively little 

 value. There are other trees of 

 much higher value which can be 

 used for stocking the reserve. 



Many stumps remain even now on 

 the reserve which show the size at- 

 tained by the oak and elm which 

 once grew there. Oaks up to a dia- 

 meter of 22 inches were found and 

 16 to 18 inches in diameter was not 

 an uncommon size for this species 

 to attain. The management of these 

 may, for the present, be of the 

 simplest kind, as they sprout read- 

 ily, and coppice management would 

 be satisfactory. No expense would 

 be entailed in this except that for 

 protection and occasional thinning. 

 It is estimated that the reserve, if 

 properly stocked with oak, would 

 yield some six million feet of timber 

 of that species per year — a quantity 

 not lightly to be passed over when 

 it is remembered that all the oak 

 used by the woodworkers of Mani- 

 toba (the agricultural implement 

 and vehicle manufacturers of Mani- 

 toba alone used, in 1910, 1,835,000 

 feet of oak) had to be imported. 

 Administration of the Reserve. 



The objects of administration must 

 be several in number. First of all 

 must come the protection of the re- 

 serve from fire. Then will come the 

 regulation of the cutting of the re- 

 maining timber. An ideal arrange- 

 ment would be the regulation of the 

 cutting so that a fixed amount could 

 be cut annually, the same for every 

 year, and probably time will bring 



this about. For the present the 

 aim must be to restrict over-cutting, 

 to regulate cutting methods so as to 

 minimize waste (e.g., avoiding the 

 cutting of high stumps, making it 

 compulsory to use the tops down to 

 as small a diameter as practicable, 

 the clearing up and destruction of 

 debris, etc.) and, above all, protec- 

 tion from fire. After that will come 

 the question of the re-stocking of the 

 reserve, whether by natural regen- 

 eration, or by planting. 



For many reasons a system of 

 roads and trails throughout the re- 

 serve is a primary necessity. In 

 order to get a force of men and 

 supplies quickly to the place of a 

 fire, roads are imperative. In order 

 to open up the reserve, to make it 

 possible for the timber in the central 

 parts of the reserve to be cut and 

 taken out and to render accessible 

 to the public those parts of the 

 tract that are fit for summer-resort 

 uses, the roads are equally neces- 

 sary. 



The necessity of roads for ade- 

 quate fire protection is emphasized 

 by Mr. Ilenrj' S. Graves, Chief For- 

 ester of the United States,' in his 

 recent work, 'Principles of Handling 

 Woodlands', and also in his Bullet- 

 in (No. 82 of the U. S. F. S.) entitled 

 'The Protection of the Forests from 

 Fire'. He writes: 'An ordinary 

 dirt road ranks as one of the best of 

 all fire-lines. The wider the road is, 

 the more effective it is. A forest 

 well cut up with roads is, therefore, 

 much more easily protected than 

 one with few or no roads.' And 

 again, speaking of trails, he writes : 

 'The first object of trails is to open 

 up a forest and make it accessible 

 for patrol and for fighting fires. In 

 the National Forests this work of 

 trail construction constitutes the 

 first step in organizing for fire pro- 

 tection The trails in the Na- 

 tional Forests are permanently con- 

 structed, and are designed for sad- 

 dle and pack-horse travel. While 

 their first purpose is to facilitate 



